Save the ACA

Jul 04, 2018

To the Editor:

Before the Affordable Care Act, 52 million people were uninsurable because of pre-existing conditions. Sixty-two percent of bankruptcies in the U.S. were medically related. The Trump administration continues to unravel the ACA piece by piece. Next to go is protection for pre-existing conditions.

Unable to repeal the ACA, Trump utilized another tactic. Tucked inside his tax bill, the individual mandate was repealed. People had protested the mandate, feeling they were paying for something they didn’t need. We should base our laws on facts, not feelings. The eradication of the individual mandate results in deconstructing financial support needed to keep the ACA viable.

In June, Trump began his attack on the pre-existing clause in the ACA. The Department of Justice followed by declaring it is now unconstitutional because the individual mandate has been removed. Have we so soon forgotten how expensive health insurance was and how many fatalities ensued for Americans who had no health insurance?

The ACA is popular because it provides protection for those who have pre-existing conditions. It provides essential health benefits that insurers are required to cover, annual physicals, doctor services, in-patient and out-patient hospital care, prescription drugs, pregnancy, childbirth, mental health and dental coverage for children. In place of the ACA, Trump has proposed cheap junk plans, allowing companies to offer the insured virtually no coverage.

Trump’s seems to believe “if you say a lie often enough people will soon believe it as truth.” Stand up, America! Protest! Trump and his cronies are working to remove another ACA benefit. They’ll stop at nothing.